The Economics of Life

Description

In this collection of Business Week columns, Gary Becker tackles almost every issue imoaginable from an economics point of view. Topicsinclude: drug legalization, immigration, education, global warming, and taxation.

Description

In The Economics of Life, Gary Becker and historian Guity Nashat Becker have collected the best of the economist's popular work from Business Week (where he is a monthly columnist). These thought-provoking essays show us where we have been and where, for better or worse, we are headed. Many of them aroused heated debate upon their original publication, and they will no doubt do so again. Extending well beyond the traditional range of economics, these 138 essays crisply address the changing role of women in modern economies, crime, immigration, drugs, marriage contracts, the effects of the stock market collapse in 1987, whether the Japanese stock market has been rigged, the organization of major league baseball and other sports, communism, competition between religions, the "Swedish way," discrimination against minorities. Supreme Court decisions, government spending, addictions, and many other topics. Although the Beckers emphasize analysis, they do not shy away from advocating controversial changes in public policy and personal behavior. Among their provocative recommendations: legalizing drugs, selling the rights to immigrate, privatizing social security, enforcing marriage contracts more fully, curtailing welfare sharply, limiting the terms of Supreme Court justices and other federal judges, taxing drunk driving and other heavy drinking, and reforming health care to preserve free choice and competition.

First Sentence

Long acknowledged as a leading academic, Gary's career took a decidedly different path when he began his new calling as a "journalist" more than 10 years ago.

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